Indonesian workers at Gaza hospital ‘resigned to destiny’ as Israelis shut in | Israel-Palestine battle Information

Medan, Indonesia – Right now of the 12 months, it must be strawberry season within the Gaza Strip.

As an alternative, the fields historically planted with strawberries in September and harvested from November at the moment are battlefields.

One of the fertile areas for palestine’s famend strawberries is Beit Lahia, with its good local weather, wealthy soil and high-quality water provides.

Positioned in north Gaza, Beit Lahia can be the house of the Indonesian Hospital the place medical volunteer from Indonesia Fikri Rofiul Haq relies with the Indonesian humanitarian organisation the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C).

“The Israeli forces have been bombing fields throughout the Gaza Strip and plenty of crops have died”, Haq informed Al Jazeera.

“This 12 months, there received’t be the standard produce like strawberries, regardless that it’s the winter season,” he stated.

Amid the horror of Israel’s conflict on Gaza, the destruction of palestine’s strawberry harvest  could seem insignificant.

However for Haq – one in every of three Indonesian MER-C volunteers primarily based on the Indonesian Hospital – the reminiscence of Gaza’s strawberries helps him cope. Every day is now a matter of survival within the territory, the place Israel is now concentrating its assaults on hospitals.

“Originally of the conflict, we had been nonetheless in a position to get some items from the realm across the hospital, like greens and on the spot noodles, however now it’s inconceivable to get recent produce like onions, tomatoes and cucumbers,” he stated, chatting with Al Jazeera by WhatsApp voice messages.

“On the Indonesia Hospital now, workers solely get a meal as soon as a day at lunchtime, which is offered by [the neighbouring] Al-Shifa Hospital. For breakfast and dinner, workers eat biscuits or dates,” he stated.

Situations at each the Indonesian and Al-Shifa hospitals, in addition to different hospitals in Gaza, have severely deteriorated since Al Jazeera final spoke to Haq on Friday.

Dr Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, warned on Saturday that a whole bunch of injured folks in addition to new child infants wanted to be urgently transported to an operational medical facility as his hospital was crumbling beneath the pressure of a scarcity of gas and medication – in addition to Israeli bombardments.

“It’s a tragedy. The useless our bodies – we will’t put them in freezers as they’re not functioning so we determined to dig a pit within the neighborhood of the hospital. It’s a really inhumane scene. The scenario is completely uncontrolled. Lots of of our bodies are decomposing,” Abu Salmiya informed Al Jazeera.

Atef al-Kahlot, the director of the Indonesian Hospital, stated his facility is working solely at between 30-40 p.c of capability and he made an enchantment for the world to assist.

“We name on the honourable folks of the world, if any of them are left, to place stress on the occupation forces to provide the Indonesian Hospital and the remainder of the hospitals within the Gaza Strip,” he stated.

Earlier than the conflict

Earlier than the conflict, meals provides for the Indonesian Hospital had been often sourced from close by areas, Haq stated. Firstly of Israel’s complete blockade and assaults on Gaza, MER-C volunteers would exit to hunt for provides in ambulances, offered by the hospital, which had been thought of safer than civilian autos.

Now the preventing has come so near the hospital that it’s too harmful to enterprise exterior.

Haq informed Al Jazeera that he has been feeling notably shaken currently, following an tour about two weeks in the past to supply medical provides for the hospital from civilian properties within the surrounding Al-Jalaa district, throughout which he thought he would possibly die.

He and different volunteers from Indonesia had been solely about 20 minutes from the hospital when bombs began to fall some 200 metres (218 yards) away.

“I felt essentially the most scared and resigned to my destiny then, as a result of we had been in buildings owned by locals and, as we all know, the Israeli navy is destroying civilian properties,” he stated.

“There was no assure of our security. It made me really feel extraordinary concern however, by the grace of God, we had been protected.”

On account of the journey, Haq was capable of finding some medical provides for the hospital and hand out meals packets to medical workers.

However since that near-miss with Israeli shells and missiles, he and the opposite volunteers have stayed throughout the hospital grounds the place they sleep within the medical doctors’ quarters.

“The trauma we skilled was so nice however, if we keep on the hospital grounds, I really feel secure as a result of the Israeli navy has in a roundabout way attacked the hospital but,” he stated.

“The realm across the hospital is being bombarded continuously and when that occurs, I really feel a really human concern,” he added.

Prior to now week, areas across the Indonesian and different hospitals within the Gaza Strip have been the targets of intensifying Israeli bombardments.

Israeli tanks have closed in, encircling the medical services the place tens of hundreds of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter as Israel’s bombardment flattens whole neighbourhoods in Gaza. Greater than 11,000 folks have now been killed within the territory.

Haq recounts the Israeli bombing being so shut that it made the hospital constructing shake and a part of the roof had already collapsed.

“Often, when there are bombings, the hospital constructing sways however on November 9, it felt as if the hospital was being lifted up off its foundations,” he stated.

“It simply made us terrified.”

Treating wounds and documenting tragedy

Haq informed Al Jazeera that when the bombing begins, he and the opposite workers take refuge within the basement of the hospital. Their day by day work schedule fluctuates in accordance with the numerous wants of workers and sufferers.

“Some days I work from 11am till 4pm the subsequent day and simply sleep a couple of hours the place I can. The opposite day, I slept from 7am to 8am after which began once more,” he stated.

In 2011, MER-C organised donations to construct the Indonesian Hospital, which was formally inaugurated in 2016 by Indonesia’s then-Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

MER-C workers are technically medical humanitarian volunteers. Now, one in every of their major roles is to doc the sick and injured who come to the hospital and monitor the assaults across the facility.

Haq and his colleagues additionally help with medical remedy, notably because the scenario continues to deteriorate and medical doctors on the hospital are overrun with sufferers streaming in from surrounding areas.

“On Wednesday final week, when sufferers rushed to the hospital, we helped deal with minor wounds as a result of there weren’t sufficient medical doctors to deal with all of the sufferers,” he stated.

Whereas Indonesia has been working to evacuate a few of its nationals in Gaza, Haq informed Al Jazeera that he wouldn’t be one in every of them.

“God prepared, me and the 2 different MER-C volunteers have determined to remain within the Gaza Strip,” he stated.

“We actually admire the Indonesian Ministry of Overseas Affairs serving to to evacuate Indonesian residents from Gaza, however that’s our choice,” he stated about selecting to stay in Gaza.

“We hope we will hold serving to residents of Gaza to search out gas, meals and medical provides, and deal with them on the Indonesia Hospital. That’s our motivation to maintain going.”

Al Jazeera has been unable to contact Haq since midnight on Friday.